~ubuntu-branches/ubuntu/hardy/xubuntu-docs/hardy-updates

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        <chapter id="root-and-sudo" status="complete">

                        <title>Administrative Tasks</title>     

                        <para>In Xubuntu, for security reasons, administrative tasks are confined to users with special privileges. Administrative access is given to individual users, who may use the <application>sudo</application> command to perform administrative tasks. The first user account you created on your system during installation will, by default, have access to sudo. You can restrict and enable sudo access to users with the <application>Users and Groups</application> application (see <ulink url="users-groups;">users and groups</ulink> for more information).

                        </para>

                        <para>When you run an application that requires administrative privileges, sudo will ask you to input your user password. This ensures that rogue applications cannot damage your system, and serves as a reminder that you are about to perform administrative actions which require you to be careful! However, each time you insert the password, the system remembers it for 15 minutes so that you do not have to type it again. 

                        </para>

                        <para>To use sudo when using the command line, simply type "sudo" before the command you wish to run. Sudo will then prompt you for your password.

                        </para>

                        <para>Sudo will remember your password for a set amount of time, which by default is 15 minutes, but can be changed. This feature was designed to allow users to perform multiple administrative tasks without being asked for a password each time.

                        </para>

                                   <note>

                                                <para>Be careful when doing administrative tasks, you might damage your system!

                                                </para>

                                   </note>

                        <para>Some other tips on using sudo:

                        </para>

                        <itemizedlist>

                                <listitem>

                                <para>To use a "root" terminal, type "sudo -i" at the command line.

                                </para>

                                </listitem>

                                <listitem>

                                <para>All of the default graphical configuration tools in Ubuntu already use sudo, so they will prompt you for your password if needed.

                                </para>

                                </listitem>

                                <listitem>

                                <para>For more information on the <application>sudo</application> program and the absence of a root user in Ubuntu, read the <ulink url="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo">sudo page</ulink> on the Ubuntu wiki.

                                </para>

                                </listitem>

 

                        </itemizedlist>

</chapter>